As the name implies, an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) converts an analog signal into a corresponding digital signal based on a property or properties of the analog signal. In some examples, an ADC is a circuit element that converts the magnitude of the analog signal's voltage or current into a corresponding digital value proportional to the magnitude.
ADCs may be included in a number of circuits. For example, several types of sensors provide measurements as analog signals, and ADCs may be used to convert and digitize analog signals from image sensors, light sensors, microphones, radio-frequency receivers, cellular receivers, temperature sensors, and more. Furthermore, ADCs may be used in analog computing where operations including convolution, filtering, passband/baseband conversion, Fourier transformation, etc., are performed on data in an analog format. In various such examples, the ADCs are used during or after the analog computations to convert the analog signals into their digital counterparts.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers may designate similar, but not necessarily identical elements.